10 Greatest Technical Death Metal Bands

Few bands can be relentlessly brutal and compositionally sophisticated at the same time, but these 10 acts have balanced both dynamics with sheer brilliance.

The origins of technical death metal trace back to the 1980s when death metal was starting to emerge from Tampa, Fla. Up in Orlando, Death's Chuck Schuldiner was experimenting with highly mechanical musicianship and later became the godfather of both death metal and technical death metal. In western Florida, Athiest were concocting a similar formula which would also go on to inspired an entire generation of metal bands.

Tech-death made a huge resurgence at the turn of the millennium, with Muhammed Suiçmez arguably leading the charge with Necrophagist. It’s unbelievable that Muhammed was writing what became Onset of Putrefaction as far back as 1992, seeing as how innovative the album sounded when it was finally unleashed in 1999. Hell, it still sounds incredible to this day.

Another new-school hero of tech death is Obscura, finding massive success with Cosmogenesis in 2009. The German act helped refresh technical death metal once again, following up with the equally brilliant Omnivium in 2011.

Check out our picks for the 10 Greatest Technical Death Metal Bands in the Loud List above!